Tuesday's Number: $142,227

Tuesday is the day my local paper, the Syracuse Post-Standard, publishes the weekly business section. In addition to special features, tips from stock experts, budgeting advice and the like, we get the judgment and bankruptcy listings.

Since mid-2012, I’ve been tracking health care related filings. I include anything that is likely a patient debt owed to a hospital, nursing home, physician or physician group, medical supplier, and so on; I do not include filings by insurance companies, many of which are so diversified it would not be a fair assumption that the filing is related to medical care or health insurance. 

• This week, there were nine new judgments to hospitals, doctors, or other medical providers, totaling $189,518.
• There were four satisfied judgments, for $47,291.
• And there were no bankruptcies. 

By hospital, here’s the breakdown: 

• Crouse had six, totaling $109,187
• St. Joseph’s had six, totaling $24,658
• And SUNY Upstate had one, for $8,382 

When there are any, I subtract the repayments from the overall totals and from the individual hospital totals, under the likelihood that they’ve already been incorporated into the numbers at some point now. Crouse was the beneficiary this week, getting the credit for the satisfied judgment.  This week, Crouse and St Joe’s received credits of $26,198 and $21,093, respectively. 

The paper publishes only those accounts of at least $5,000.

How Do You Solve a Problem Like The Donald?

Leaked lyrics for a new single from Reince Priebus and the Trapped Party Singers:

ABC News 

He rides an escalator on TV, he does not take a stair

He boasts about all he owns but tells us life's not fair

On top of all his bluster, he's got that wild-ass hair

And now he's scaring off my G.O.P!

He doesn't think before he speaks - that much we know is true.

The Mexicans or John McCain? He's got strong words for you!

I hate to have to say it, but this you already knew

Oh yeah, he's really scaring off my G.O.P.

I'd like to say a word on his behalf, but I can't - I know you'd surely laugh!

How do I solve a problem like The Donald? Should I shut him up and sit him down?

How do you find a word that means The Donald? A pretender? A charlatan? A clown?

sodahead.com

Many a thing we R's would like to tell him; many a thing we wish he'd understand:

How you never trash the party's heroes, equate a nation to a bunch of 'zeros'

and expect the rest of us to let that stand

Oh, how do I solve a problem like The Donald? How do I hold such candor in my hand?

When I hear him, I'm confused, out of focus and bemused

and I never know exactly where I am. Unpredictable as the weather

He's as flighty as a feather. He's a bragger! He's a demon! He's a sham!

He's got a ton of money and he's proud to tell us so

He puts his name on EVERYTHING in case you didn't know.

The 'Trump House' - can't you see it if to Washington he'd go?

Oh yeah, he's really scaring my G.O.P.

He'll out-bluster any storm, dispense drivel in perfect form

He's throwing my party out of whack!

He's arrogant! He's wild! He's a tyrant! He's a child!

He's a headache, not an angel! He's a wretch!

blog.timesunion.com

How do I solve a problem like The Donald? Should I shut him up and sit him down?

How do you find a word that means The Donald? A pretender? A charlatan? A clown?

Many a thing we R's would like to tell him; many a thing we wish he'd understand:

He can't ignore the party's leaders, playing only to bottom feeders

And hurting the party's name across the land!

Ugh. How do I solve a problem like The Donald? How can I fire this evil man?

My Middle-Aged White Lady Perspective: $15/hour

So you've all heard by now that New York's Sonofa Gov, Andrew Cuomo, called for a Wage Board to rubber stamp the idea that fast food workers deserve to make $15 per hour. Eventually. Not right now, of course, when they're struggling making less than a living wage, but later -- 2018 in New York City, and 2021 across the rest of the state. Said rubber stamp was applied, and without more than three or six years of further ado, wages will go up for folks who work in places food is paid for before it's eaten, as long as the establishment meets the requirements.

From my middle-aged white lady perspective, this is a ridiculous idea, on several fronts.

(1) How many fast food workers are people "trying to raise a family" on minimum wage? I suspect there are some, and we've of course seen them on news stories about the wage hike, but most folks I see working in these restaurants are teenagers, not adults. High schoolers, not grandmas and grandpas. That may be a factor of where I live (Syracuse) or how infrequently I go to Arby's, McDonald's, Burger King, or Dunkin' Donuts, but generally my experience is, the person wearing the manager or supervisor name tag is the only 'adult' behind the counter. Do high school juniors really deserve to make as much as college graduates?

(2) If the entry level job pays $15, how much will these businesses have to raise the salaries of the assistant shift supervisors? Shift supervisors? Store managers? District managers? And how much will that cut further into the restaurant's profitability or even ability to survive?

(3) Have we no plans to grow the economy and the job market in New York, that we are anticipating people will still be in the same fast good positions three or six years out? And have we no plans to reduce the cost of living here in the Empire State, to reduce government mandates and taxes and wasteful spending, the things that would make all salaries last longer, leaving arbitrary wage increases as our best option? And if that's the best answer today, what will it be six years from now? Will a 'living wage' be $20 then?

(4) What makes fast food workers special, compared to, say, substitute teachers? Home care workers? Cashiers? Stock boys at grocery stores? Retail employees? Do we really value someone who puts donuts in a box more than someone who teaches or cares for the young, the elderly, the disabled?  Is that who we want to be here in the great state of New York?

(5) Why would we want to devalue experience and education?  Some time ago, I posed the question on how we can double or significantly increase the minimum wage without making the same adjustments in all other wages, which are 'commensurate with experience' or require college degrees, or both.

(6) Mandating $15/hour doesn't only raise the hourly rate of pay for workers. It also raises the cost of benefits for the company; it raises the taxes that the businesses pay; and it obviously will raise the cost of the food sold at the restaurant. Those increased costs will be passed on to consumers, including all of those folks who are NOT getting a massive, government-directed raise.

(7) The new wage comes without any expectation of increased productivity or service; it only brings added cost to the businesses and their customers.

I'm old enough, and fortunate enough, to have spent my adult life working at jobs where there was incentive to work harder, to do more, to go the extra mile on behalf of my employer or our customers. I'm grateful for the opportunity to be able to advance, to take on added responsibilities and to be financially rewarded for doing that.

I understand that not everyone has that chance today. I get that. But randomly eliminating that opportunity because it's been priced out of the market by a Governor who's pandering for support, money and votes (or in my opinion, lamenting that he hasn't been more like his late father and trying to make amends), serves us how? Randomly deciding that only a portion of the labor force in New York is, by stroke of a pen, suddenly worthy of a 60 - 70% salary increase serves us how?

It is, on its face, nothing but a poorly conceived government-ordered handout that will not solve the income gap, or reduce income inequality. It is intended to replace one government benefit (SNAP and other assistance paid to low-wage earners), but as designed may actually end up increasing government benefits for the cheering workers we saw on television when this was announced.

The next time you're in your local Panera Bread, look around for the tablet computers where you can order and pay for your food, without having to talk with a cashier. Or, when you're sitting at your table after doing your own ordering, waiting for your food to be brought out, take a look at the little sign on the wall advising that you could have ordered from your table - no need to even stand at a tablet. That's right - you can grab your table first, pull out your smart phone, place your order and pay, and then go back to playing Words with Friends without ever batting an eyelash.

Those tablets? They don't call in sick; they don't require 30 percent or more in benefits overhead; they don't costs the business increased payroll taxes; and they government can't raise their salary.  I'm willing to bet we'll see a lot more of those, and fewer fast food workers, working fewer hours, by the time the vaunted $15 hourly wage is in place.

And the other big reason? Because the people who pushed for the huge pay increase for fast food workers are not regular customers of fast food restaurants. I maintain that they should be, particularly when full increase finally goes into effect, because of that whole 'walk the talk' thing. You know, kinda like Donald Trump not liking that his ties and shirts were made in China and complaining about the quality and that China is raping America, but continuing to have his line of branded items made in China anyway. Walk the talk, folks.

I'll give a 2021 fast food hour's pay to the first person who gets a shot of the Governor and Sandra Lee chowing down on a Brown Sugar Bacon BLT.

Tuesday's Number: $191,432

Tuesday is the day my local paper, the Syracuse Post-Standard, publishes the weekly business section. In addition to special features, tips from stock experts, budgeting advice and the like, we get the judgment and bankruptcy listings.

Since mid-2012, I’ve been tracking health care related filings. I include anything that is likely a patient debt owed to a hospital, nursing home, physician or physician group, medical supplier, and so on; I do not include filings by insurance companies, many of which are so diversified it would not be a fair assumption that the filing is related to medical care or health insurance.

• This week, there were 15 new judgments to hospitals, doctors, or other medical providers totaling $201,387.
• There was one satisfied judgment, for $9,955.
• And there were no bankruptcies. 

By hospital, here’s the breakdown: 

• Crouse had four, for a total of $20,803
• St. Joseph’s had three, for $29,030
• And SUNY Upstate had nine, totaling $141,599

When there are any, I subtract the repayments from the overall totals and from the individual hospital totals, under the likelihood that they’ve already been incorporated into the numbers at some point now. Crouse was the beneficiary this week, getting the credit for the satisfied judgment.

The paper publishes only those accounts of at least $5,000.

Wondering, on Wednesday (v37)

Tonight, I'm revisiting a few things I've touched on in the past, starting with our Sonofa Governor Andrew Cuomo's education proposals, and looking at what's happened in other areas where similar plans have been tried.

Cuomo's plan, you remember, included tax credits for people and corporations donating to schools, tax credits for some families to offset the cost of private school, and scholarships, again for families who send their kids to 'nonpublic' schools. This appears to go against the NY constitution, but that didn't seem to matter for the Governor.

It didn't matter in other places either: there was a program in Colorado, referred to as Choice Scholarships (aka vouchers), for families who sent their kids to religious schools.  It was recently struck down by the state's highest court as unconstitutional, as it violates a provision noting that school districts cannot provide aid to religious schools.  And, in Louisiana, a court similarly determined that public money being used for supporting religious schools is unconstitutional.

At the same time, some states, are having success with these types of programs. Most of them, not surprisingly, are led by Republican Governors and Republican legislatures, who have adopted a 'constitution be damned' attitude.  Which has me wondering, whether Cuomo, who was challenged from the left in the last election, thinks that making a turn to the right will help him in the next?

A few Wednesdays ago, I shared the thoughts of Bob Costas on the decision by the powers that be at the ESPY awards to honor Caitlyn Jenner with the Arthur Ashe award, given for "strength in the face of adversity, courage in the face of peril, and the willingness to stand up for their beliefs no matter what the cost..."

Costas noted that this was all about getting eyeballs on the ESPYs broadcast, which has always been aired on ESPN.  It's their show, after all.  Yeah, it's always been on ESPN, until tonight, when it's being broadcast on ABC.

Now, some people might think that's OK; after all, the networks are in the same family and all. But you can't convince me, and I wonder who could be convinced, that this was anything other than the tabloid play that Costas said was the whole point of giving the award to Jenner.

And finally, there's this: New York Giants defender Jason Pierre-Paul had a little fireworks problem, one that only cost him a finger, not his life. In the flurry of media activity surrounding this story, an ESPN reporter tweeted an image of Pierre-Paul's medical records which included a note about a finger amputation. Sharing someone's medical records without authorization is a violation of federal privacy laws. And of course, a violation of journalistic ethics and human decency and all that jazz. Sure, it was just a finger, but it doesn't matter whether it was a finger or a toe or a penis or an ear. It's wrong.

Mike Freeman, on Bleacher Report, wrote about the lessons to be learned from the accident and the media coverage, noting that

Maybe all journalists should stop and think about where our profession is going. A journalist I really respect joked that someone was probably periscoping JPP's finger surgery. I laughed and then thought someone probably will try that in the future. Unfortunately, that's where journalism is headed, and it's not good. 

I wonder if anyone will see this and take the message to heart?

Tuesday's Number: $527,675

Tuesday is the day my local paper, the Syracuse Post-Standard, publishes the weekly business section. In addition to special features, tips from stock experts, budgeting advice and the like, we get the judgment and bankruptcy listings.

Since mid-2012, I’ve been tracking health care related filings. I include anything that is likely a patient debt owed to a hospital, nursing home, physician or physician group, medical supplier, and so on; I do not include filings by insurance companies, many of which are so diversified it would not be a fair assumption that the filing is related to medical care or health insurance. 

• This week, there were 22 new judgments to hospitals, doctors, or other medical providers totaling $527,675.
• There were no satisfied judgments.
• And there were no bankruptcies listed.

By hospital, here’s the breakdown: 

• Crouse had none
• St. Joseph’s had two, for $16,342
• And SUNY Upstate had 20, totaling $511,333 

When there are any, I subtract the repayments from the overall totals and from the individual hospital totals, under the likelihood that they’ve already been incorporated into the numbers at some point now. 

The paper publishes only those accounts of at least $5,000.

Trump on the Stump: Immigration

If he's learned nothing else from threatening to run for office over the years, Donald Trump has mastered one thing: find a person who personifies your issue of the day, and bring them along for the ride.

Trump is selling his candidacy on two things, so far: his personal wealth, which he estimated at his announcement to be north of $8.7B ("going to be over $10B with the increase"), and his statement about the Mexican government sending us their rapists and criminals and drug dealers.

On the wealth thing, he doesn't need any props or people to help him out - there's no one better at horn-tooting than His Hairness. His name is plastered all over the place, albeit fewer places than before his announcement that blatantly antagonized some, and scared others, in his sponsor pool.

On the immigration thing, Trump has found a living, breathing personification of the illegal immigration/crime issue, and it's a horrible situation to be sure.

Yesterday, at a speech in Las Vegas, Trump appeared with Jamiel Shaw Sr. Shaw's son, Jamiel II, was killed in 2008 by an illegal immigrant while walking in his own neighborhood. Pedro Espinoza, who was convicted and ultimately sentenced to death in 2012, had just been released from a four-month stint in jail, and was visiting someone in Shaw's neighborhood.

According to reports, Shaw's backpack was red and that might have been the trigger. We've seen stories over the years about innocent kids, good kids, kids just like Jamiel Shaw, getting hurt or killed for wearing the 'wrong' color, usually red or blue, because of the connection to gangs. There was also some suggestion that the murder was an 'initiation rite' for Espinoza into a Hispanic gang. Making it even worse, if that's possible, is that fact that Shaw's mom was on her second tour of duty in the Gulf when he was killed.

It is impossible for me to even begin to imagine the pain and loss the Shaw family, or any family who loses a loved one to a crime, must feel. I can, however, imagine that pain and loss being magnified by the knowledge that the person who murdered their son shouldn't have had the chance to, because he shouldn't have been in our country in the first place.

We do have an illegal immigration problem here in America - Trump is absolutely right on that. We do have porous borders - ranchers from all across the Mexican border have cameras showing the migration of people cutting fences, climbing them or going under them, wading the rivers, and simply walking across into America.

We don't have the right resources, or the right tools, to stop this from happening, or if we do, they're not being deployed correctly.

In addition to not being able to physically stop illegal immigrants from making it into America, we don't have the right resources to deal with sending them home, either. According to TRAC data, for the current federal fiscal year, there's a backlog of 449,001 cases in the immigration courts (through May of this year). Of those, 131,349 are Mexicans; 9,619 are for criminal cases of some sort, the rest are immigration cases. These are the people in the system; the number who are not in system is any one's guess.

Trump's solution?

I would build a great wall, and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me, and I'll build them very inexpensively, I will build a great, great wall on our southern border. And I will have Mexico pay for that wall. 

It's a great sound bite, and a great boost to his campaign - frankly, there are lots of people in America who think that's exactly the kind of thing we need to do.

A 'great wall' stops illegals from walking, swimming and climbing over, but it doesn't help us get rid of the ones who are here, even the ones we know about. It doesn't address how we'll go about getting the rest of the illegals rounded up and sent home.

And, it doesn't address our passion, or our history, of taking these folks in in the first place, something that's been going on for years; as we know, this is not an Obama thing, it's an America thing.

Is that the larger conversation we should be having?

Wondering, on Wednesday (v36)

Here in Syracuse, we had a tough Independence Day weekend, with eleven shootings in 24 hours, one resulting in the death of a 19 year old. Several others were injured during the incidents. Interestingly, or shockingly, or somethingly, the young man had apparently posted on Facebook that he was going to be taken out. His message was shared and liked dozens of times, although it's hard to tell whether that happened before or after he was killed.

Not surprisingly, the shootings drew a lot of attention on our local news websites, including several comments making reference to the SAFE Act, the hastily passed gun legislation that came about in response to the Sandy Hook shootings. Here are a few of the comments:

Good thing we have the SAFE Act. How's that SAFE Act working out for you? Clearly the SAFE Act is working as intended. 

When I see these comments, I always wonder whether the authors were at the scene of the shootings, and tried to take out the bad guys, but were unable to do so because they only had seven bullets?

And speaking of taking out the bad guys, how about that Bill Cosby deposition? The one where he said, yeah, Quaaludes, we're gonna have Quaaludes (oh wait, that was Ice Cream...) Anyway, what he said was that yes, he did purchase Quaaludes with the intent of giving the pills to women he wanted to 'be with' as Lester Holt so delicately stated last night on the news.  And he admitted to giving them to at least one woman with whom he had sex.

It's a mess, for sure. And one that a judge thought we had the right to see.  In releasing what he did, as the request of the Associated Press (AP) US District Judge Eduardo Robreno noted that

The stark contrast between Bill Cosby, the public moralist and Bill Cosby, the subject of serious allegations concerning improper (and perhaps criminal) conduct is a matter as to which the AP - and by extension the pubic' has a significant interest. 

There are some two dozen women who have come forward stating that Cosby drugged and had sex with them against their will, or when they were not able to consent.  As was the case when Tiger Woods was initially exposed as a serial play-arounder before he played a round, anyone can say it happened and Cosby really can't do much about it. After all, vehemently denying one out of a couple dozen sort of makes it look like the other 23 are telling the truth, right?

And while I hope that the women victimized by Cosby get some justice, in one form or another, it is hard to sit and watch this epic fall from grace and not wonder why no one around him, no one associated with Cosby, was able to exert any (or enough) influence on him, to protect the women from him and to protect him from himself.

Finally, tonight, I'm wondering about another person who was not protected from himself, who was not prevented from doing something that, tragically, took his life in an instant.

Devon Staples, a 22-year-old, was killed when he lit a fireworks mortar on his head. Apparently he pretended he was going to do it, and friends thought they had talked him out of it, but for whatever reason, he did it anyway. According to some reports, he was the kind of guy who would do anything for a laugh, was the joker, was the one everyone wanted to be around.  And now he's gone, in an instant.

Sometimes, wondering is all I can do.

Tuesday's Number: $483,235

Tuesday is the day my local paper, the Syracuse Post-Standard, publishes the weekly business section. In addition to special features, tips from stock experts, budgeting advice and the like, we get the judgment and bankruptcy listings.

Since mid-2012, I’ve been tracking health care related filings. I include anything that is likely a patient debt owed to a hospital, nursing home, physician or physician group, medical supplier, and so on; I do not include filings by insurance companies, many of which are so diversified it would not be a fair assumption that the filing is related to medical care or health insurance. 

• This week, there were sixteen new judgments to hospitals, doctors, or other medical providers, totaling $445,139.
• There was one satisfied judgment, for $5,292.
• And there were two bankruptcies, adding another $43,388. 

By hospital, here’s the breakdown: 

• Crouse had eight, totaling $66,465
• St. Joseph’s had one, for $13,611
• SUNY Upstate had seven, for $74,309 

Crouse’s total included a credit of $5,292 for the satisfied judgment; I subtract the repayments from the overall totals and from the individual hospital totals, under the likelihood that they’ve already been incorporated into the numbers at some point now.

There were three other judgments this week: one each for a surgery practice and a cardiology group ($5,361 and $5,050 respectively), and one for a regional cancer center in Pennsylvania, a staggering $318,439. Together they account for the difference between the overall totals and the local hospital totals.  

I see the $318,439 and I wonder, did the person have any insurance? A policy that only covers in-network services and they went out of network? Were they getting experimental treatment that's not covered by their plan? Is there some failure of the health insurance 'process' here, or is it something else?  I know people do it all the time, but I have a hard time imagining myself trying to fight cancer and also having to tackle the mountain of debt that sometimes results from that fight. 

The paper publishes only those accounts of at least $5,000.

Greece is the Word, is the Word

Without a whole lot of fanfare, here are two ideas to hep solve the Greece financial crisis, and prevent a further decline in the global economy (and our retirement funds and pensions  and all the rest):

Option 1: 

The International Olympic Committee moves their headquarters, and the Olympic Summer Games, to Greece. Permanently. Home of the ancient games, and the revival of the modern games (1896), Greece is the spiritual home of the Olympics; their flag goes first in the Parade of Nations, and the Olympic flame starts there and then makes it way across the land of the host country, ultimately landing at the main venue, for all to see.

If Athens was the permanent host city, the facilities from 2004 that are slowly going to waste could be brought back to their original glory, putting tens of thousands of people to work, pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into the country's coffers, and reinvigorating the country and her economy and her psyche. 

I solve my problems and I see the light, we got a lovin' thing, we gotta feed it right. There any no danger we can go too far, we start believing now that we can be who we are. 

Greece is the word. 

Those millions of dollars for construction would be paid in part by the IOC and member countries, who would no longer need to build their own white elephants, spending billions of dollars that could be used much more effectively to help people in need, rather than enriching the lives of the wealthy.

Tourism dollars would flow again, and money from athletes who could live and train there, free from the temptations and pressures of doing that at home.  All of the ancillary industries, from taxis to dry cleaners and restaurants and athletic supporter companies and Starbucks and the rest would  have improved cash flow, and they could pay everyone $15 per hour no matter what their skill set, and everyone would be happy. 

The Greek banks would be flush, and the Greek debt could be flushed away, because there would be money to both move forward AND to pay off the debt to Europe and the IMF and whoever else is on the list of Greece's creditors. 

And amateur sports would go back to being amateur sports, and the world could breathe a collective sigh that everything is going to be alright.  Because, like the song says, 

Greece is the word, is the word that you heard, It's got groove, it's got meaning, Greece is the time, is the place is the motion, Greece is the way we are feeling.

Option 2:
Much less romance, much less history, much less good feeling about "being who we are." Nah, this one's nowhere near as satisfying in that regard, but it'll still do the trick, I think.

Those people who cold call you offering to reduce or eliminate your credit card debt by working with the banks to take sometimes only pennies on the dollar?  And if you press 3 they promise never to call you again? And then they call you every day? And when you press 1 to talk with a live operator who can help you right now transform your financial future, and you tell them never to call you again?  That works (not), just like pressing 3 works (not).

Yeah, we give those guys Greece's phone number, and then we let them get the phone with the Euro zone money lenders and with the IMF.

I'm sure there'll be a deal in no time.

Tuesday's Number Quarterly Recap

This past Tuesday’s Number post was the last in the second quarter.

As I do every thirteen weeks, I took a look to see how the numbers stack up against prior quarters, and to try and get a handle on whether or not we've got any interesting trends. 


First, here are the quarterly totals:

• New Judgments: $3,290,452  
• Satisfied judgments: $107,869  
• Bankruptcies: $321,661 
• Grand total: $3,504,244

And the year to date numbers: 

• New Judgments: $8,471,440
• Satisfied judgments: $268,377
• Bankruptcies: $782,560
• Grand total: $8,985,623

How does this quarter compare to others? Well, we saw the lowest total filings, 201. The previous best? Q1 2014, when there were 253.  It also had the lowest dollar total for new judgments, beating Q1 2014 by roughly $1.7M.  For satisfied judgments, this was the second lowest total, coming in about $20K less than the previous low in Q3 2014.  And, we saw the second lowest total dollars in bankruptcies; Q4 2014 was about $150K lower.

While there are lots of positives this quarter - most of the metrics are going in the right direction - the number of satisfied judgments coming in low is a little disappointing. 

If you think about a 'Tuesday’s Number' kind of ideal world, folks who have piled up heath care debt would have affordable health insurance (without gigantic out of pocket costs built in) to protect them going forward. And, they’d have jobs that paid enough to cover their bills, including health insurance premiums, maybe save some money, and have enough to spare to allow them to pay down the medical bills they accumulated when they were uninsured, or under-insured.

The other part of the 'Tuesday’s Number' ideal world is the part where hospitals, nursing homes, surgical centers, physician groups and the like were reimbursed enough to cover their costs and allow their employees to make a good living; to invest in new treatments and technologies; expand into rural areas and less financially attractive specialties; and to have some money left to provide assistance to folks who run into hard times, so that we don’t see millions of dollars piling up every Tuesday.

Are we there yet?

Not unless you think that a net of $59,899,058 (judgments plus bankruptcies, minus satisfied judgments) over ten quarters is acceptable for our community. 

But we can hope that the numbers continue to improve, across all categories, and that we inch ever closer to the ideals outlined above. 

Wondering, on Wednesday (v35)

The sound of 'Dump Trump' continues to echo across the land.  His Hairness is experiencing some nice fallout from his comments as he announced his candidacy for President that,

when Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their bet. They're sending people that have lots of problems, and they're bringing those problems with (them). They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists.

Not surprisingly, those comments, which were accompanied by others regarding the giant wall that Trump would build on the border - and have Mexico pay for - were not well received, and folks are jumping ship. NBC, Macy's, Univision, the beauty pageants Trump has - all are giving him the proverbial 'you're fired' message.  He's also in hot water with professional golf organizations; Trump proclaimed that he's got "tremendous support" because "they know (he's) right."  On the contrary, golf says this:

In response to Mr. Trump's comments about the golf industry "knowing he is right" in regards to his recent statements about Mexican immigrants, we feel compelled to clarify that those remarks do not reflect the views of our organizations.  While the LPGA, PGA of America, PGA Tour and USGA do not usually comment on presidential politics, Mr. Trump's comments are inconsistent to our strong commitment to an inclusive and welcoming environment in the game of golf.

I'm wondering whether Trump will allow these organizations to play on his courses in the future?

Speaking of golf, let us all give a polite golf cap for the NY State Legislature, and our Sonofa Governor Andrew Cuomo.  Together, they've proven once again that when it comes to giving taxpayers their money back, par for the course is good enough for them.

You see, our esteemed legislators have decided that New Yorkers need a property tax rebate again; they passed this version, a $1.3B deal, as part of the end-of-session package. While this year's version is tied to household income and the STAR program, it bears a big similarity to the last one: passed during an odd-numbered year, the checks will come during an even numbered year. Right before the election. If you ask me, this should be illegal. (Is it any wonder that they're not asking me?)

Here's another thing I wonder about: when a person commits a crime, such as the Charleston murders, and is then captured and admits to committing the crime, is there any reason why the media refers to the criminal as the 'alleged' or 'accused' killer?  He admitted he did it; why isn't he referred to as the 'admitted' killer?  Lawyers and psychiatrists and the rest will do their part to try and secure a fair outcome when things come to trial, but I think in the meantime, we should be able to describe him as he describes himself.

And finally, the field of notable Republican candidates for President has increased yet again. Here are the players that have officially entered the fray: Jeb Bush, Dr. Ben Carson, Chris Christie, Ted Cruz, Carly Fiorina, Lindsey Graham, Mike Huckabee, Bobby Jindal, George Pataki, Rand Paul, Rick Perry, Marco Rubio, Rick Santorum, and Trump.

If they all were to agree to play a round on one of Trump's courses, I wonder who would win, and who would wear the worst pants?